Gov. Josh Shapiro recounted the arson attack that burned through his Harrisburg home earlier this month, penning a guest essay published Wednesday in the New York Times.
A state trooper alerted Shapiro and his wife, Lori, of the fire just after 2 a.m. April 13. They escaped without injury from the home with their children and two dogs.
Harrisburg Bureau of Fire Chief Brian Enterline walked Shapiro through the home to assess the damage after the fire was extinguished, Shapiro wrote — noting the smell of the smoke, water dripping from the ceiling and eerie silence.
“The beautiful state dining room — where my family and I celebrated our Passover Seder with family and community just a few hours earlier — was completely destroyed,” he said.
Cody Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg walked nearly three miles to the home with a sledgehammer and homemade Molotov cocktails. Police said Balmer — who has schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, according to his family — aimed to burn down the home and kill Shapiro and his family.
Balmer was arrested and faces felony charges of criminal attempted homicide, aggravated arson, burglary, terrorism and two counts of aggravated assault.
While some believe the attack to be an act of antisemitism, Shapiro declined to entertain the notion.
“I believe in the rule of law, and for the rule of law to work, prosecutors and law enforcement officials need to be able to do their jobs and investigate without fear, favor or political pressure,” Shapiro wrote. “It is not my job to opine on what the motive was or what the charges should be.”
Shapiro’s words aligned with those he shared after the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump in Butler in July and the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December.
“This type of violence has no place in our society, regardless of what motivates it,” he wrote. “It doesn’t matter if it’s coming from one side or the other, directed at one party of another or one person or another.
“This level of violence has to stop,” he wrote. “It is our shared responsibility to do better.”
Shapiro concluded the letter detailing an encounter with a fire department chaplain who gave the governor a handwritten prayer from the book of Numbers, included in both the Jewish Torah and Christian Bible — “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”
“I cried when I read this,” he wrote, “because it’s known to us as the priestly blessing and it happens to be the same prayer that Lori and I have recited to each of our children every night in Hebrew before they go to bed for more than two decades.”
Shapiro continued: “Moments like that have given us strength over the past week.”